Local youth group practices with Band of the Golden West

  • Published
  • By Nick DeCicco
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The Band of the Golden West is no stranger to making house calls, but inviting guests into its musical lair is a note of a different sort.

In fact, it hasn't happened in recent memory, according to Tech. Sgt. Steve Schaughency, a horn player in the band who handles community outreach.

It was shared parts collaboration and observation Jan. 25 when the Boy Scouts of America's Peninsula Scout Band, a co-ed group comprised of high school students from throughout the Bay Area, visited Travis.

For a group so accustomed to leaving the base and playing other venues, band conductor Maj. Richard Mench jokingly referred to the event as "community in-reach."

"It's a fantasy to combine our groups," said Michael Toschak, co-director of the scout band. "The school hasn't come to the base before. This is a new experience for them."

The experiment started slowly as the teenage scouts - affiliated with the Pacific Skyline Council No. 224 pack - observed from chairs across the room before filling in empty seats scattered among the band members.

After a short break, the two bands practiced together, running through "Amazing Grace," "Esprit de Corps" and John Philip Sousa's "The Liberty Bell."

While the military-styled scout band plays some of these pieces on occasion, the Band of the Golden West members were sight reading, performing the pieces as they read them on the page.

Mr. Toschak said, for the scouts, visiting Travis is part of the group's purpose, to explore music as a career or a lifelong hobby. About half of the scout band's 20 to 25 players were in attendance.

"It was good to play with musicians that have been playing many years," said Mauricio Vazquez, a trombonist with the scout band.

Another player in the scout band said he was impressed by the talent of the Golden West band members.

"They add things that are not there, what's not in the music," said Andrew Fenn, a saxophonist, referring to the way a note is played or the style in which it's performed.

Sergeant Schaughency said the scout group's visit was in the works since August 2007, but the dates didn't align for both bands until recently.